By Rosalyn Queen
On Sunday afternoon, Italian Festival weekend, if you are in the audience at 3:45. I invite you to close your eyes for just a second. Frankie Avalon will be taking the stage to perform for the audience gathered there. If you are old enough you will be taken back to the early 1980s when he was also in Clarksburg to entertain for the Festival.
Avalon is best known for his No 1 hit Venus. He also starred in several movies with Annette Funicello which featured beach parties. He has had several No 1 hits such as Why in the 1960s
Avalon’s Italian heritage comes from his mother and father. His mother was an Italian immigrant hailing from Sicily and his paternal heritage comes from Salerno in Campania, Italy.
We might help him celebrate an early birthday as he will observe his 85th birthday on September 18.
On one occasion when I was in Las Vegas I had the opportunity to attend the Golden Boys concert which featured Avalon, Fabian and Bobbie Rydell and was invited backstage to an after concert party. The Golden Boys are still performing.
I feel that festival goers will always welcome Avalon back to Clarksburg to the WV Italian HERITAGE festival.
By the way, stop by the Stonewall Coffee Shop on Court Street for a book signing I will be holding for the reprint edition of my book, Arriverderrici. I will be there on Friday after the coronation until three o’clock
Stay healthy, stay cool and until next week “ Now You Have Heard It through the Grapevine.”
Pic ID: pictured are Frankie Avalon, Rosalyn Queen and Tommy Basile. This was taken backstage when he performed at the Festival in the early 1980s. Basil, WVIHF Board Chair was entertainment chair and was responsible for securing Avalon.